I have been reading a lot of the posts about getting more people, Nigerians especially, to join the hive blockchain. In this post, i will share my onboarding experience and possible solutions.
I have been on the hive blockchain for quite some time now. During this time i have tried to onboard a couple of people with little success and for obvious reasons, one of them being the poor social experience.
It is difficult navigating the hive ecosystem as a newbie. Most of the people I have onboarded quitted in the first two weeks. These are some of the reasons I get when I ask why:
“I cannot write long articles”
“It is difficult to understand.”
“I don’t get upvotes”
“I don’t have the time”
These are valid excuses because everyone who joined this platform at some point encountered similar problems. Things were a lot difficult when i signed up 3 years ago. Most of the tools you use today weren't available then. However, i was able to stay consistent and over time things changed. Unfortunately, not everyone has that stamina.
Now, with that being said i think there is a lot of work needed to improve the social experience on hive. It is the key to the growth of the chain and if we continue to act like it doesn't matter the project will remain in the shadows.
I was having a conversation with my friend @lizzblue2, who i onboarded last year. She is a Nigerian in Ukraine and one of the most talented people i know and i have been trying to get her active on hive.
She mentioned to me during our conversation that she would be keener to post on hive if the user experience was better and i think for most people this covers functioning and moderns interfaces with engaging content.
On hive Naija, the goal is to create a safe and fun space for Nigerians to interact. To be honest, we aren’t doing so great on the fun side of things. The dilemma for me is that i am not used to the type of content Nigerians find entertaining, so that is a challenge for me as a mod.
Also, i have noticed that there are a lot of fractions in the Nigerian community. During one of the live sessions on hivenaija discord channel, someone revealed to me that a certain friend of his who introduced him to hive refused to join the hivenaija community because he did not like certain people in the community.
So there is the case of jealousy and bad blood between Nigerians on hive, and to be fair it is understandable. There are certain individuals here i dont like, however, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things because at the end of the day we would all benefit from having a robust and active community.
HOW DO WE CREATE AN ENTERTAINING AND ENGAGING AMTOSTPHERE FOR NIGERIANS ON HIVE?
I think it all starts with the community we already have. If we want people to jump on the hive train, we must organize ourselves better and put out better content.
Also, we have to work together. One of the major reasons i stayed on hive during my early days was because of the airhawk community. They gave me all the support and information I needed to thrive. We had strong communities back then. Unfortunately, we are yet to replicate the glory days of 2018, maybe we can, but it will take a lot of effort.
I will do my best to lead by example. I dont think i have been much of a great leader/mod lately. There is so much i can do actually but notwithstanding i believe hivenaija can be the home of Nigerians on the hive blockchain. Once we get to that point, onboarding and user retention would improve significantly.
Hi Nonso. Your post is very good. Hope it is will be well addressed. I am a Nigerian too, I started with steemit before I get to know about hive this year. Though I am not a writer or blogger but I like trying new things, so I try to teach myself, especially after seeing elders making livelihood with giving. So far so good. I am still learning and equally ready and open for learning more. Thanks for posting.
you are welcome to the hive blockchain and the hive naija community. there is a lot you can learn via engaging with other community members. and yes, it is quite possible to earn something decent from posting and performing other social activities here. so keep pushing. cheers!
I joined Steemit(Hive) in 2017. My friend Karchi introduced me. Then it was easier to exist because of steem price at that time. It didn't matter if I earned $2 on a post, because 2SBD then was #6,000.
I'll speak for me though, it was easier to commit to Steem(Hive) because I had nothing else I should have been doing. I had just graduated from college, I had all the free time in the world.
I think those set of people(with lots of free time) are the easiest to onboard.
But then in Nigeria today, everyone's busy. It'll be hard to find people that'll commit to being active on a platform, without sure promises even if you show them that it is promising.
On my own end, I've tried to onboard loads of my photography colleagues. Told them how it has sponsored some of my gear purchases, and how it sustains me during SAPA period. Most of them signed up, some made few posts, then they left.
I've said too much, the truth is, you can only preach the Hive gospel, conversion is up to them. The ones that'll stick will stick.
I find it funny how people who are struggle can be so uninterested in something that can make their lives better but they can opt for other social media platforms where they earn nothing.
True that but I think some things can change to improve user experience.
Yes, some things can be done to improve UX on the blockchain. But I think the bulk of the work to onboard people is off it. And I think it'll be very effective. However, the execution is dependent on how much you are willing to stake to onboard people; Nigerians in this case.
Here's how I joined Steemit;
My friend Karchi made a post on Facebook. These were her words paraphrased: "Do you want to make money from your smartphone simply by making posts as you'll do on regular social media? Send a DM"
Now, I'm skeptical about online ventures to make money. But Karchi was a smart lady, so it had to be legit. I sent her a DM and she added me to this Whatsapp group "Steembees". It e=was an offline community for Steemit.
In that group, there were pre-existing users keenly interested in brushing newbies up. We were taught how to make posts, format them with markdown styling, the dos, don'ts of the platform, etc. At the time too, we had people in the community that had links to whales and the rest of them; @surpassinggoogle for example. So while we were coached offline, we were gingered by results online.
Then there were offline giveaways, games, competitions, etc. That means even if you weren't excited with happenings on the blockchain, the activities offline were sure to keep you engaged.
Another thing that was doing was evangelism or steemvangelism 😁. Some people took it on themselves to host physical lectures about Steemit. Took it to schools and churches. And people joined. Hubs were created in Uyo. I think Uyo had the highest number of Nigerians on Steemit. Many of them are my friends until now.
Are we willing to do all that today? I don't know. With increased knowledge about blockchain tech, it shouldn't be necessary to do all that that was done in 2017, but it's worth a shot. But that's based on how pressing the need to onboard people is.
Phew! I've made a comment long enough to be a post. Btw, if there's an offline community on Whatsapp, I'd love to be part of it. Discord seems a little distant for me, the notifications from airdrops dey taya me.
Thanks for the feedback. It is appreciated.
Well, I think I have some ideas in mind but I will need time to settle. I think in the past, offline activities spurred the growth of the chain and so I will be looking towards that direction. We don't have a vibrant community currently I will admit but I am hoping to change that soon.
I always wonder why people complain of not being able to write long articles. Short articles are fine if you are bringing in original interesting images with their descriptions. Otherwise, a 400 to 1000 words article is not too much for someone expecting rewards. One should be ready to put in the effort in order to get the reward.
As a curator, you will hardly find me recommending less than 500 words articles for upvotes unless it is accompanied by original interesting images.
i understand that not everyone is a natural writer but most of them are educated and can string a couple of sentences together. it only takes some effort really but many are adamant. I honestly do not have the strength to convince such people
Tried the same 4 years ago in the German community. Most of what you write sounds familiar :D
Marketing Hive (Steem back then) is not easy.
Perhaps we should not waste time marketing, at all.
i get you but it often pops up in my conversations. I tell people, they seem interested but never get started. Those who manage to end trying leave in less than two weeks. i guess we are a different crowd.
How person go just dey, say they no like person for the community? Them fight?
Wahala be like bicycle... People got issues
Awesome contribution. A lot of people have gotten similar comments when they invite people to be here and they quit.
However, it's our duty to make this community engaging for newbies. It's not entirely a job for one person. There are many talented people here who would be willing to give out time for the improvement of the community once they know what you expect them to do.
I don't know much about not liking people here. I think if we have a common goal, and we focus on that, I don't see a reason why a personal feud with a person based on what they write or who they are should stop you from working with them.
The goal is to make Hive conducive for Nigerians. Let's focus on that.
Thank you for your contribution to this week's contest.